When you are fighting a DICTATOR on foreign soil,
there are things to bear in mind, and an IMPORTANT one is:
Make sure the inhabitants see that you are fighting their RULERS, and not THEM!
Once, long ago, we had a president who UNDERSTOOD that.
George Washington’s September 15, 1775 letter to Benedict Arnold,
laying out instructions for the upcoming campaign
to persuade Canadians to relinquish their neutrality
and join the American side in the War:
…The Success of this Enterprise, (under God) depends wholly upon the Spirit with which it is pushed,
and the favorable Disposition of the Canadians and Indians.
observe the strictest Discipline and good Order,
by no Means suffering any Inhabitant to be abused, or in any Manner injured,
either in his Person or Property,
punishing with exemplary Severity every Person who shall transgress, and making ample Compensation to the Party injured.
Check every Idea, and crush in it’s earliest stage every attempt to plunder
even those who are known to be Enemies to our Cause.
It will create dreadful Apprehensions in our Friends, and when it is once begun,
none can tell where it will stop.
I, therefore again most expressly order, that it be discouraged and punished
in every Instance without Distinction.
Be very particular in restraining not only your own Troops,
but the Indians from all Acts of Cruelty and Insult,
which will disgrace the American Arms, and irritate our Fellow Subjects against us.
As the Contempt of the Religion of a Country by ridiculing any of its Ceremonies
or affronting its Ministers or Votaries has ever been deeply resented,
you are to be particularly careful to restrain every Officer and Soldier
from such Imprudence and Folly and to punish every Instance of it.
On the other Hand, as far as lays in your power,
you are to protect and support the free Exercise of the Religion of the Country
and the undisturbed Enjoyment of the rights of Conscience in religious Matters,
with your utmost Influence and Authority.
Given under my Hand,
at Head Quarters, Cambridge,
this 14th Day of September one Thousand seven Hundred and seventy-five.Jpgs of the original copy by Col. Richard Varick (Washington's recording secretary)
begin HERE:
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=mgw3&fileName=mgw3b/gwpage001.db&recNum=41&tempFile=./temp/~ammem_xHlc&filecode=mgw&next_filecode=mgw&prev_filecode=mgw&itemnum=2&ndocs=14and FULL credit for finding this gem goes to:
http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/